steps of making : front page

step 1.

I needed to decide what to call my newspaper, at fist I didn't know what to call it. I knew I wanted to produce a local paper for the youth where I live. This is where my name derived. I live in the ‘’castle point of Rochford’’ which covers local towns including Rochford, Southend and Hockley etc this made me settle on the name ‘‘the point’’.  I felt This would enable the paper to have a broader audience as students from several colleges and universities would come under this area. it is also a short snappy name which would attract younger people. The name also implies that the paper gives the reader news they are interested in, it gets to ‘’the point’’ and does not bore the reader with irrelevant information which is  not important to them, in doing so keeping them interested.

The colour scheme was important to get correct, I initially thought black and white as it looks stereotypically professional as many broad sheet newspapers use this. Even though I am designing a tabloid it is aimed at college and university students meaning that they are , to a certain extent, intellectual. Another reason  i chose these is because they match the theme of the paper because they are simple and like the content, get right to the point. Despite this I had to remember that the readers are still young people so I added an injection of colour with the blue full stop at the end. I decided to over lap the words ‘’the’’ and ‘’ point’’ because they stand out on one another making them eye catching and bold. I also decided to use a serif font as it is bold and less formal then san serif and is normally used in tabloid papers. This was a contrast with the professional colours and made it slightly more current and relevant to students.

• audience feedback
• font is bold and stands out
• the date and website are included
• the wite stands out on the black
• back stands out on white
• the name "the point" is short and snappy it get to the point :)
• the blue adds a splash of colour

step2. 

i drew out some basic layouts for the front page of the newspaper so it gave me a basic idea of whetre the mast head and images would be placed then i could write the articles around this.

 I began by inserting my masthead that I made in Photoshop onto an A4 in design document. Then I wanted to add a strap line below this. I wanted this line to sum up the audience for my newspaper to make it clear to the reader the content would be relevant to them. I came up with ‘’Local news for the youth of the castle point of Rochford’’ this makes it clear that the newspaper is aimed at  young people living in the local area. It also makes it clear that the newspaper is called ‘’the point’’ because  it is for the residence of the castle point of Rochford.

I  also  decided I wanted three columns and placed picture boxes, this gave me a basic layout that I could work with.

step 3.

 The next task was to decide on a layout for my front page I looked at the research I had done into existing layouts

step 4.

step 5.

After this I decided I no longer wanted three columns as during my research I discovered that most tabloid papers have less writing therefore if I had five thin columns it would look like there was less writing as the  

I also decided that I no longer wanted one of the stories on the front page to be about

I also added a black box behind the strap line  which made it stand out as I changed the font to white. This also meant that the strap line matched the masthead. 

 step 6.

  i drew out my layout again, this time with 5 collumns as it looked more profesional like the existing nespapers in my research which also had e collums. i then added in some basic image boxes so i new where abouts i would place them.

I decided make the second lead story on my front page about the current rising of tuition fee’s. I decided to do this as it is a current story that directly affects the target audience for my paper (16-25 year olds). Because this story affects the readers they would be drawn to it and make them more likely to by the paper. The second lead story normally only consists of an image and a mast head. I went against conventions  and just put in an image of young people protesting. I felt this was enough to draw in readers as the people in the image are of the same age group as the readers and this alone would grab their attention. As apposed to the mast head I included a kicker, a short paragraph briefly telling the reader what the article is going to be about-persuading them to read on

I also added a headline for the lead story which was unconventionally to be at the bottom half of the page. This meant that the headline was in the centre of the page and therefore in the eye line of the reader. The typeface I used was a big and bold font in order to grab the readers eye and make it stand out from the rest of the page as the other font I have used is smaller. I also used the same blue font as the full stop in the mast head so it matches with the colour scheme and gave the paper an identity.

The headline is “why stay in”  it is asking the reader a direct question and therefore engaging them and making them what the article is about. In this case it was to be about the positive affect partying can have on you a subject in which will certainly be of interest to the majority of my target audience

audience feedback
the strapline clearly shows who the paper is for.
The headline matches the blue in the mast head
I prefer the design with 5 collumns to 3
large image catches readers attention

step 7.

•Next I added a box out in the far left column of the paper. In this column I wrote kickers for some stories featured in the paper that would interest the target audience about fashion, news and nightlife. As the writing was in a small font so I could fit it in one column the box out made these stories still stick out o the page.

•I also added picture boxes to give me a rough idea of where other images would go.

step 8 

•Next I added an image of a young group of young people dancing in a club or at a party this links to my head line about going out and would interest the target reader. The article added to this as it is about a subject that interest young people and can be linked to the strap line “local news for the youth of castle point of Rochford”  as it is about a subject that interests youth.

step 9 

•In a questionnaire carried out i found that young people are more likely to pick up a paper if they have a chance to win a competition of get vouchers. Because of this i decided to give cinema vouchers in my paper for a local cinema. In Photoshop I made an image of a cinema ticket using simple shapes which i could put on the front page to entice readers to buy the paper as they would get vouchers.

•The blue colour of the ticket also matches exactly the headline and full stop I did this by copying the blue and adding it to my swatches to ensure that they matched and added to the identity of the paper. 

step 10

•I then pasted into the document and placed it at the bottom of the page.

step 11

I then, once again moved the image of the cinema ticket to the bottom of the page under the box out. After deciding that the voucher would be for a cinema ticket I brain stormed ideas for an image to put behind the text these included :

•Cinema seats

•Camera

•Film

•Popcorn

I decided that the popcorn would work well as the others may have been to detailed for the text on top to be clear.

After taking a picture of the popcorn I changed the opacity to 50 percent so text was clear on top and gave it a blue hue so it matched with the rest of my page and was in keeping with the theme.

By making the text white and making key details a larger font it ensured the reader would understand what they had the chance of winning. Just like in other adverts I made the terms and conditions smaller.

step 12

•Next I placed an image of a group of students just before the skydive below the story regarding it.

step 13

feedback

positive points

the use of images is in preportion to the amount of writing

stories will interest young people unlike conventional newspapers that may not interest them

mast head stand out

the free cinema tickets ould grab the attention of target audience

the box out makes informtion stick out

nice range of stories

like the colour scheme- makes it relaxed which matches the target audience.

negative

some headlines for minor stories could be more bold so they catch the readers eye

•Finally after reading the feedback I made the headlines of the minor stories in the box out bolder and brighter so that they would catch the eye of the reader.

step 14

•Finally after reading the feedback I made the headlines of the minor stories in the box out bolder and brighter so that they would catch the eye of the reader.

audience feedback

• like the combinaition of the mast head and strap line
• headlines of major stories now stick out as they are written in a bright colour
• It is clearly a newspaper but take ideas from magazines (bright colours) to make it look less formal and appropriate for the target audience